Tips on how to celebrate Earth Day with your Kids
“We must leave both a better planet for our children, and better children for our planet"
Earth day falls on April 22nd every year and began to make the government consider the environment when creating laws. It has since become a day where people and businesses show the ways in which they are helping to fight climate change. The main aim of Earth Day is to increase awareness of important environmental issues, and to help us know what we can do to help.
So what can we do to help? Educating our children and giving them the tools to protect our environment is so important as parents. It can be a daunting topic, and many people don’t know where to begin, after all, many of us parents were never taught this at school! To help celebrate Earth Day we’ve compiled a short list of steps you can take to help introduce the topic of sustainability to your children.
Spend time outside
The best bit of being a kid is getting dirty, right?! We all have memories running through the woods, rolling down hills and just being outside more than this generation. Spending time outside exploring the beauty of our environment is a great place for kids to start. Spend time finding bugs and learning the names of different flowers and trees.
Once a child values their environment (whether that’s their garden, the park or even a part of their walk to school) they will begin to appreciate it’s importance. You can begin to talk to them about trees, and their important role of cleaning the air. You could maybe even plant a tree, as a fun way to make this topic memorable.
Read books about the environment
There are so many books out there filled with great content to help kids learn. For example, there are books about our impact (e.g Last Tree in the City), about consumerism (e.g. What a Waste), as well as a number of books about people who have had a positive environmental impact. Make this activity even more sustainable by borrowing these books from a local library or sharing them amongst friends.
Reduce waste in your home
This sounds easier than it is – especially when as mum and dad it’s a constant battle of “you need to finish your full plate of food”. What does help though might be teaching children to limit rubbish where they can, to help reduce the amount sent to landfill each year. Make it a conscious choice to take old items to second-hand stores where possible, instead of throwing them away. If you lose the ever-constant battle over finishing all the food on the plate, why not try to set up your own compost bin to reduce your household food waste?
Make recycling fun!
Kids love a reward, and as parents we constantly reward positive behaviour (when we’re not pulling our hair out), so why not reward healthy habits when it comes to reducing, reusing, and recycling! Set up a recycling station and offer a reward for every item that gets washed and recycled instead of being put in the bin. There’s lots of places too that pay for certain recycling e.g. clothes. It all helps the piggy bank funds!
Lead by example
Our children are sponges, and the best way we can teach them is to lead by example. It is so important that we begin to do what we can to help teach our children these healthy habits and limit our impact on the environment. Why not set up some goals you’d like to achieve in the next month, for example; setting up a recycling station, spending one day a week going for a walk with your kids, or planting some plants in your garden together. Everyone loves David Attenborough and watching his TV shows (although a fun evening activity) are also helping a lot of people get to grips with the climate crisis, so this could be a great place to start. He’s even joined Twitter at the age of 95 to help lead the way!
What other steps are you taking to educate your little ones on the importance of caring for our planet? We’d love to hear any of your ideas or suggestions! Drop us an email at help@planetradiooffers.co.uk
